THE HARDEST THING
If your boss pulled you aside and said, "I've been watching you and you're doing a great job. Here's $100, and take the rest of the day off", what would you do?
How many of you would say "Thank you", head back to work, and later, take home the $100 and either frame it to admire from time to time, or simply put it in a drawer and pull it out every now and then to remember that great moment from the past?
May seem like a stupid question, but it's exactly what many of us do in the church world.
One of the HARDEST THINGS to do in ministry is to gain MOMENTUM. The only thing that may be even harder is MAINTAINING MOMENTUM. But, more times than not, we're like a dog that chases a car. If he ever caught it, he wouldn't know what to do with it. We're the same way with MOMENTUM. We work like dogs to achieve it, but if we're successful, we don't have a clue what to do with it.
Here's an example: Recently, like every other church, we celebrated Easter. It's a big day. It can be a day to achieve MOMENTUM. We set a goal of reaching 1500 people that day. We've never had 1500 people in attendance...ever. We had around 1700 people that day! Instant MOMENTUM. You can't buy this stuff. It's worth its weight in gold. So, what do you do with it?
Well, for too many of us, we simply go back to work, get right back to the status quo, frame it and every now and then say, "Remember back in 2013 when we had all those people? Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, I'll never forget it. Can't wait for next year". And...there goes all the MOMENTUM. We worked so hard to achieve it, but have no plan, and certainly, no clue, how to keep it.
What's missing? We have this TEMPORAL view of ministry, rather than a LINEAR view. Ministry isn't about an event, it's about life-change. It can't be about "how many people did we have show up for our event?", but "how can we channel that MOMENTUM we just created to maintain it and use it to fulfill our mission of seeing lives transformed by the power of God?"
But, that requires a plan, a strategy and a desire. It requires a viewpoint that this isn't the end, but rather the beginning.
What about you? You were part of achieving MOMENTUM. Are you a part of maintaining MOMENTUM?
How many of you would say "Thank you", head back to work, and later, take home the $100 and either frame it to admire from time to time, or simply put it in a drawer and pull it out every now and then to remember that great moment from the past?
May seem like a stupid question, but it's exactly what many of us do in the church world.
One of the HARDEST THINGS to do in ministry is to gain MOMENTUM. The only thing that may be even harder is MAINTAINING MOMENTUM. But, more times than not, we're like a dog that chases a car. If he ever caught it, he wouldn't know what to do with it. We're the same way with MOMENTUM. We work like dogs to achieve it, but if we're successful, we don't have a clue what to do with it.
Here's an example: Recently, like every other church, we celebrated Easter. It's a big day. It can be a day to achieve MOMENTUM. We set a goal of reaching 1500 people that day. We've never had 1500 people in attendance...ever. We had around 1700 people that day! Instant MOMENTUM. You can't buy this stuff. It's worth its weight in gold. So, what do you do with it?
Well, for too many of us, we simply go back to work, get right back to the status quo, frame it and every now and then say, "Remember back in 2013 when we had all those people? Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, I'll never forget it. Can't wait for next year". And...there goes all the MOMENTUM. We worked so hard to achieve it, but have no plan, and certainly, no clue, how to keep it.
What's missing? We have this TEMPORAL view of ministry, rather than a LINEAR view. Ministry isn't about an event, it's about life-change. It can't be about "how many people did we have show up for our event?", but "how can we channel that MOMENTUM we just created to maintain it and use it to fulfill our mission of seeing lives transformed by the power of God?"
But, that requires a plan, a strategy and a desire. It requires a viewpoint that this isn't the end, but rather the beginning.
What about you? You were part of achieving MOMENTUM. Are you a part of maintaining MOMENTUM?
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